spinney
Americannoun
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spinneys
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spinney
1300–50; Middle English < Middle French espinei (masculine), espinaie (feminine) a place full of thorns, derivative of espine spine; compare Late Latin spīnētum difficulty, equivalent to Latin spīn ( a ) thorn ( spine ) + -ētum noun suffix ( see arboretum)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Less than half a mile to the west, they came upon a spinney adjoining the southern edge of Caesar’s Belt.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Merry went in front leading a laden pony, and took his way along a path that went through a spinney behind the house, and then cut across several fields.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Then they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm and surveyed with speechless admiration the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the spinney.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
It happened that there was in the yard a pile of timber which had been stacked there ten years earlier when a beech spinney was cleared.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
He led me into a small spinney, ample enough to hide us from view.
From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi
The flowery meads and bird-fruitful spinneys of the Arras teemed and rippled over the four walls.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Moreover he starts on an important journey to-morrow and would propose a very brief encounter with you at dawn, in one of the spinneys of the Park.
From Petticoat Rule by Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy
Nothing but fields and spinneys and barns, lanes and waste-lands.
From Reginald in Russia and other sketches by Saki
The plains of Salisbury, ideal for summer military camps, are rolling, prairie-like lands stretching for miles, broken by a very occasional farm house or by plantations of trees called "spinneys."
From On the Fringe of the Great Fight by George G. (George Gallie) Nasmith
But you'd never find your way to her cot; it lies out beyond the spinneys.
From Love and Life An Old Story in Eighteenth Century Costume by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
